My Dearest Companions
by MisbegottenBrouhaha
Summary: When Ten was about to regenerate, he managed to stave it off long enough to visit his old companions. We saw some of his visits, but what of the others?


The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS and stepped out into the cool autumn air. As he shut the door behind him, a gentle breeze blew the red and gold leaves of nearby trees through the cemetary before him. In the cold, stark modernity of the 22nd Century, this piece of land on a hill above London was a nice change of pace. As he walked forward, battered red Converse crunching over the dry leaves, the tenth incarnation of the last Time Lord sighed.

He felt the energy from his impending regeneration course through him and fought to keep it down. He was aware that he didn't have much time to remain in this form, but also knew that he wouldn't be long here. His goal was to slip in and out before she got here. It was the anniversary of David Campbell's death, and he hadn't seen Susan since his eighth incarnation, and he felt a great deal of guilt about not returning sooner. He wasn't even sure that she was still alive.

It's funny, he thought, you'd think that as the last of my race I'd want to see if my own granddaugther was still alive. Especially, he winced guiltily, as I was the one who wiped out all the rest. Still pondering this, he spotted the gravestone he was looking for. 'David Campbell' read the name carved into the smooth and polished black stone. The Doctor felt a great sense of relief flow through him when he noticed that there was no companion for David's tombstone. She's still alive, then. I'll have to be even quicker, now.

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a dark pink rose. He'd read somewhere long ago that on Earth dark pink was the colour of rose that you gave to someone when you meant 'Thank you'. He put his hands into the pockets of his suit pants and bowed his head, silently thinking the man lying below him for loving his granddaughter as he had.

He then turned and walked briskly back to the TARDIS. As he opened the door, he turned and looked back, sadly. He knew that this was the last time he would see this sight with these eyes, and wanted to take it all in. As he did so, he saw a figure approaching the cemetary, head down toward the ground. He hurridly entered the TARDIS, shut the door, and walked over to one of the viewscreens set into the central console. He poked at a few buttons and then peered into it. The last Time Lord smiled sadly at what he saw therein, and rapidly flipped the switches to engage the dematerialisation of the TARDIS.

* * *

As the oh-so-familiar sound of the TARDIS parking brake sounded through the air, Susan Foreman made her way up to the hill to the cemetary where her beloved husband lay. She walked with her head down, thinking of everything that had happened since she left Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS so many years before.

She topped the hill and froze, jolting her head upward. She looked around in surprise, hoping against hope that she would see the beautiful blue box that belonged to the madman who floated through time and space, the box she had whose name she had shortened so long ago. Her head and face both fell again, though, as she saw nothing. Susan continued into the cemetary, winding her way through the gravestones to David's, cursing her imagination for providing her with false hope.

Her eyes opened wide, though, when she saw something at the foot of the tombstone. No one ever came up here anymore, well, no one but her. She took the final few steps to the grave and knelt down, staring at the rose in wonder. Then she saw it; a blue ribbon tied around the stem.

She looked up with tears in her eyes and smiled, knowing that she really had heard her grandfather's TARDIS. As she stood in that breezy cemetary so high above the city, the rose took her back in time to a day long before. On this day, as a youngling newly arrived on Earth, she had begged her grandfather to take her to Kennsington Gardens. They had gone through the whole thing, and as they were leaving, the old man had grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward a grouping of what, she soon learned, were roses.

Smiling as he did so, the Doctor pulled one from the bush, stripped it of thorns, and tucked it behind her ear. 'Do you see these flowers, Susan? Do you know what they are called?' 'The sign says they are called roses, Grandfather. Why?' The Doctor smiled and began to lead her back toward the exit. 'Grandfather?' Susan asked, confused. 'Why do you ask?' The Doctor took her hand and looked into her eyes. 'Your name, the one given to you when you were born, is Arkytior. It is High Gallifreyan for a flower the people of Earth call "rose."'


End file.
